Don't Judge by the Grin
by ToasterPoet
Summary: Yes, I wear arm warmers. Yes, I drink hot cocoa in the middle of May...but I am NOT crazy, really! Rating lowered to T Might be lowered later.
1. Chapter 1

Alexis Denver stepped off the school bus onto the hard pavement after the rest of her classmates. She took a moment to make sure she had everything with her, and stepped away from the plexiglass doors.

"Really Will, you should know that none of the world we live in would be possible without nature. Plants give us even the air we breathe, the least you can do for them is recycle!"

She turned at the ever-so-familiar voice that had been giving a not-so-uncommon rant throughout the entire bus ride. A cheerful Layla was beaming at the world in front of her with a triumphant grin on her face. Next to her stood a rather harassed-looking Will, who was holding a hand to his head as though suddenly hit with a severe migraine. "It was a Post-It note for Christ's sake," he muttered, still clutching his head in pain. Layla just gave an exasperated sigh and took a large step in order to not disturb a small clover patch in front of her. Alex laughed softly at her friends. Deciding to spare Will any further headache, she looked around at her other classmates for an alternate victim. Hmmm….Zach would work. Yes, he had definitely stolen her hot chocolate at lunch today, and she needed to get back at him.

Seeing that Layla was about to begin an entirely new lecture on the difference a single Post-It note could make in the fight for Mother Nature's preservation, she swiftly interjected. "Oh Layla, I forgot to tell you about what I caught Zach doing today. He was _actually_ going to throw an aluminum soda can in the _trash_!" Alex watched as her friend quickly adopted a shocked expression at the ungodly prospect. All thoughts of an upcoming lecture for Will were forgotten as Layla marched off to reprimand her new victim.

"Thank the lord! I love her and everything, but I thought my brain was gonna explode! I am unfortunately in your debt."

"Right you are, Stronghold," she replied. "And I think that may be repaid with hot chocolate later, seeing as the egotistical human Night Light over there stole mine today."

Looking over to where Zach was being sternly scolded for his 'dark deed', she continued. "So it all works out. I get my hot chocolate, and he gets to spend the next half hour being environmentally enlightened. Happiness makes the world go round, wouldn't you agree?"

Will just laughed and shook his head at her usual antics, saying, "See ya, Alex."

"Later, Will."

Spotting a very amused Maj and Ethan watching Zach being tortured, she grinned. "Bye guys! Oh, and do enjoy this positively lovely afternoon, Zach!"

She didn't even wait for his response; the look on his face was enough. Giggling uncontrollably, she skipped lightly down the sidewalk. Proud of her accomplishment, Alex quickened her pace a bit and pushed past to home.

Upon reaching her house, she unlocked and opened the door quietly, and checked the coat rack in her daily routine. No coat meant that her father wasn't home. He never was home on weekdays while she was awake, but she still checked to be sure. Today, being Thursday, was no exception. Quickly dropping her bag in her room, she started purposefully toward the kitchen. It was a silent agreement among siblings that Alex was to make a snack everyday for her and her little sister. After eventually laying out some cut up apple and peanut butter she'd managed, she sat and waited for her sister to wake up.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, the door at the far end of the room opened, and a rather messy head of light brown hair appeared at about the height of the door handle. Alex grinned down at her five-year-old sister as the little girl made her way to one of the stools next to her. "Heya Ellie, have a nice nap?" The girl blinked and gave her a lopsided smile. Her given name was Ellen, but she hated being called that, so Alex had in a stroke of brilliance thought up a new name for her. Ellie took her seat and began dipping an apple, while Alex told her all about the wonderful pranks she had pulled at school that day.

------------------------------------

As night fell on the empty streets and many alleyways of the suburb, Alex lay awake in the dark, staring at the ceiling. One thing was haunting her otherwise sleepy thoughts. It ricocheted of the boundaries of her mind, keeping her awake. _Tomorrow was Friday._


	2. Chapter 2

Apparently the time spent lecturing Zach, which turned out to be much longer than the half hour Alex predicted, had satisfied Layla's environment rampage. She had restrained herself from scolding unsuspecting students all throughout their first class in Mr. Boy's room. Which Alex was undoubtedly grateful for, as she sat next to her in 'Hero Support'. Now, exiting from her second class of the day, Alex was in an extra good mood. She had beaten out each and every other student in the classroom by getting the fastest time for putting together a heat ray. Not only that, but Medulla had given her extra credit for constructing a ray that functioned wonderfully despite its speedy assembly.

Alex had been placed in a rather complex schedule earlier that year. While in power placement, she had stoutly refused to be sorted into a category, even though she was going to be in the hero group. She had stood with her arms crossed defiantly as Coach Boomer tried his usual ways of intimidating protesting students. No matter how powerfully he yelled though, he couldn't so much as waver Alex's practiced stubbornness. Eventually it was settled that she would partake in both level's classes. As she put it, the best of both worlds.

At any rate, Alex's hyperactive energy was obviously irritating Will. He sat next to her in Hero classes, and needless to say had not been as successful with the heat ray assignment. As Alex skipped merrily (and backwards) down the hallway, he groaned.

"Could you calm yourself for a few minutes, by any chance?" he asked, already knowing what the answer would be.

"Nope! That, my friend, would be impossible. Or maybe improbable. But not really either when you think about it, because I just don't want to!" With that said, she waited with an amused look as Will sorted out what she had just said.

"I still just don't get how you can be better than me at that, when I spend all day in that classroom, and you only spend half of it."

"I guess it's just like they say then, huh? With great strength comes great stupidity."

"Who sa- HEY!" Finally realizing what she had just said, he looked up angrily. They had reached the entrance to the cafeteria. Alex skipped ahead and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Glad you figured that out, Stronghold. Now you'll just have to figure out everything else I've said that there is to figure or not figure out."

Will only rolled his eyes and followed her around the corner. The cafeteria was already filling up with students, though the majority of them were in the lines getting food. Alex began jumping up and down like a small child, chanting, "Food, food, food, food, FOOD!"

Will groaned and said, "You could stop being so annoyingly hyperactive, you know."

"Of course I can't, silly, you know that!"

"Too well I do."

"Yup, it's just how awesomely awesome I am!"

Will rolled his eyes in her direction once again as they came into view of the usual table, but the smell of freshly baked French fries had already distracted her, and he was left to take his seat on his own. Layla and Maj were already seated. Maj diagonal from Layla, with a spot open next to her for Zach, and a spot on either side of Layla for Ethan and Will. Maj looked up as he sat down, and smirked slightly seeing why he was on his own. She cocked her head to her right, shifting his attention to the moody presence beside her. Will vaguely recognized the dark figure, and called out a dull greeting befitting of his far from cheery mood.

"Hey Warren."

Warren looked up uninterestedly from where he had been picking at his food, and nodded just as dully at Will to show he'd heard him. Layla took the burger off her plate and placed it in front of Will as usual. From behind him, Will heard a peppy little tune being hummed, announcing that Alex had been shooed away by whoever had owned her precious French fries, and was now skipping cheerily toward the table. Seeing their friend approaching, Maj and Layla exchanged knowing glances. They both remembered quite clearly Alex's past encounters with Warren Peace. And apparently Alex did too, judging by the mischievous little grin that spread across her face after spotting him.

She flounced purposefully into the chair directly across from him. Taking out her usual rather crumpled looking bag lunch, she grinned cheekily before saying, "Good lunch-between morning and afternoonish time!"

Warren stopped eating and raised his head with the air someone wishing very, very hard that what they are sure is in front of them really isn't. Sure enough, there was the familiar smiling face of Alex. He groaned in something similar to agony.

"Oh no, it's the psycho."

Alex widened her eyes and looked at him as though just realizing he was there.

"Oh no, it's Mr. I'm gonna go start burning down the cafeteria and cut everyone's lunch time in half on pizza day because I have a permanent angryface!"

He glared at her, but returned to his food. He had learned the hard way that Alex could choose to bounce back any remark you threw at her. Then again, the girl was just plain confusing sometimes.

-------------------------

_Alex stood and cheered loudly with her friends. Nearly the entire school was rushing out to congratulate Will on beating Lash and Speed at 'Save the Citizen'. She jumped down off the side of the bleachers, seeing as the steps were jam-packed. She and the rest of the crew were only about fifteen feet away from where Will stood, currently surrounded by the popular seniors, or as Alex liked to call them, "the preppys"._

_Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Layla wave ecstatically to Will, trying to be seen over the crowd. Will saw her, but just as he started to wave, Gwen Grayson grabbed his hand and lifted it in the air. Alex felt a wave of sadness wash over her as she watched with the rest of her friends as Will was carried away. She could tell it had hurt Layla, just by looking at her face. She reached over and put a hand on her shoulder. Layla gave her a weak smile and began walking to the locker rooms._

_Alex turned to follow her, seeing as it was the end of gym class, and normally that was what you did, but she stopped. On the now pretty much empty gym floor there remained a crouched figure. Warren Peace. She remembered him. He'd nearly fried Will to a crisp the first week of school. It had been pizza day, and there had only been a few minutes left in lunch after their fight. She had definitely not been very happy about that._

_Deciding to see if he was ok, she started walking over to him. As she got closer, she could tell he was still having trouble breathing from being stuck in a vortex and then thrown halfway across the gym. He didn't notice her approaching until she had kneeled down to level herself with him. He tried to give her his usual hostile look, but seemed to be having trouble doing so with his temporary breathing issue._

"_Are you alright?" she asked. Obviously he wasn't, but she felt it necessary to ask him anyway, just because._

_She didn't get an answer, so she muttered, "Apparently not."_

_Lifting a hand, she held it just in front of his heaving chest and closed her eyes in concentration. There immediately was a faint, barely noticeable glow, and Warren straightened a bit. A few seconds later, satisfied she had done enough to save him from developing asthma, she opened her eyes and rubbed her hands together a bit as he inspected his newly healed lungs._

_Apparently he couldn't find anything wrong with them, because a moment later he was staring at where she now sat gazing at the ceiling. His face was scrunched up in thought, and he finally said, "Why are you helping me?"_

_Alex cocked an eyebrow slightly at this and then leaned back on her heels, pretending that his comment had sent her into deep thought. Looking him straight in the eye and raising the corner of her mouth in a little half-smile, she gave him her undoubtedly logical answer. "Because I feel like it."_

_And with that said, she rose to her feet. Turning on her heel, she marched out of the gym as though nothing had happened. In her wake, Warren still sat on the ground, staring after the most unusual person he'd ever met._


	3. Chapter 3

Alex glared angrily at the empty space in front of her. She should have thought of this, really. If only she had remembered to pack a lunch. Now she was stuck _thinking_ about delicious food instead of _eating_ it.

"Mooo…" She groaned. If she pretended she was a cow, food would magically appear from the sky.

"Mooooooooooo…" She groaned again, slightly louder this time.

"She's doing it again," Maj complained.

"Alex shut up."

"But I'm _hungry_!"

"Then you should have packed a lunch, or go buy some," Will pointed out. Alex just glared at him. She didn't have any money for a lunch.

Zach miraculously appeared from Alex's left at that very moment, carrying a tray full of cafeteria food…including French fries. Seeing this as an ideal moment of opportunity, she lunged at him and swiped the snack before he could react.

"Hey!"

"What is it now?" Layla sighed.

"She stole my fries!"

Layla groaned and gave her boyfriend a clearly exasperated look before turning to Alex.

"Now, don't you think it would be nice of you to give the fries back, Alex?"

Alex looked at her briefly and blinked. Then she grabbed a fistful of fries and stuffed them into her mouth before beginning to chew. The slightly browned edges were still hanging out of her mouth, and bobbed up and down each time she chewed.

"That is _disgusting_," Will said slowly, enunciating each word as though to drive it into her head. Alex just continued to chew and stare, as though not comprehending what he was saying.

"Sometimes I wonder why we hang out with her." This comment came from Maj, who completely counteracted her own words by breaking out in laughter.

There was a chorus of "Me toos" and "Yups" from the others before conversation and eating resumed at a normal pace.

Halfway through lunch Warren nearly burned up some poor new freshmen who happened to pass their table and stare at him the wrong way. He had yet to learn the natural instincts of what no to do at Sky High.

Layla was still giving him stern glances over the table, five minutes after she had scolded him to keep from another detention. Alex could still feel that the metal edged cafeteria table burned her each time she touched it.

"OWY!" She yelped, after forgetting and placing her hand absentmindedly on the heated metal edge.

"What _now_?" Layla asked, having been put in a particularly stressed mood after having to remind Warren that cracking a lunch tray over someone's head isn't a good example of calm mediation.

"The table bit me"

Layla opened her mouth as a reflex to offer advice, but was gaping.

"Umm….it _bit_ you?" Will asked tentatively. Her claims were getting to be more and more exaggerated everyday, from Post-It notes conspiring to lockers holding grudges, but he still hadn't gotten used to it.

"Yeah, I touched my hand to it and it—" Alex stopped mid-sentence, just noticing the death glares she was being sent by Warren from across the table. She pulled blanks for a few seconds before understanding that Layla was liable to explode at any given moment. Even Warren was afraid of her when she was in rage.

"….Never mind," She surrendered quietly, turning back to picking at the French fry crumbs.

"Oh….Kay…" Maj started.

"Did anyone get the answer to number seven on the Hero Support homework?" Zach asked, breaking the tension of what was quickly becoming an awkward silence.

"You mean the worksheet due today, or the one due on Monday?" Layla inquired. The conversation quickly turned to homework assignments.

"Monday"

"I think it was something about Radio-Man?" Will more asked than answered. Maj gave him a slight nod behind Zach's back. "Yeah…yeah, it was definitely Radio-Man!"

"You shouldn't get him confused with Sound-Syndrome, though. I almost made that mistake on Tuesday's quiz," Alex added.

"You should know. Isn't that the difference between Radio-Man and Sound-Syndrome what you did your end of quarter project on?" Layla asked.

Alexis nodded.

"Oh my god, I _hate_ that project! I haven't even started yet!"

Will laughed at Zach's despair, adding in, "Are you kidding me? Mr. Boy assigned that project weeks ago!"

"_And_, it's due on Monday along with that worksheet," Layla said.

Zach looked dumbfounded. "Oh. I haven't finished that either."

Maj rolled her eyes. "Wow, thank god it's Friday right?"

"I couldn't agree more," Warren growled under his breath, watching with annoyance as Alex experimented with how many French fry crumbs she could chuck at his head. The rest of the table nodded, all getting up to throw their trays away and not noticing his irritation.

Alex stopped throwing food, but Warren had already gotten up and didn't notice. She froze, but quickly got up to throw her trash away as well when the group returned. As she tipped the empty container in the trash disposal, she thought to herself quietly…

_Today was Friday._


	4. Chapter 4

Warren walked silently along the sidewalk in his usual brooding mood. The sun was just starting to set, and he had to get home for dinner before his mom threw a fit…like he really needed another person to throw a fit after his boss at work. Sometimes he wished he wasn't bilingual, so that her yelled complaints would fall upon deaf ears, and the only thing he'd have to worry about would be blocking out the high pitch of her voice.

Glancing around the corner as he went, he turned into a side street. Sure, it might not be the normal route to his house, but it was a short cut, and he did need to get home. It wasn't that there was anything particularly intimidating about the side street, it was just completely deserted….which for Warren, was all the more reason to go through it.

The street was actually very wide, with a few narrower alleyways that lead almost directly to neighborhoods nearby, one of whom being Warren's. He walked to the end of the wider passageway and prepared to turn into the left alley, but stopped as he heard a sound. It was coming from the alleyway opposite the one he had been about to turn into.

Walking over to it without thinking, he moved a trash bin that looked like it had been pushed over clumsily. Behind it was a small girl who was crouched over something, hovering protectively over it. Her sobbing was what he had heard apparently, because her blue eyes were leaking huge wet tears that drenched her face.

"Go away! Go away," The little girl cried at Warren, flailing her tiny fist at him and refusing to move from whatever lay behind her.

"I'm not going to hurt you," said Warren slowly, trying to catch her hands to calm her.

The small girl eventually tired of punching air and collapsed, sobbing once more, onto the object.

"Sis-sy," She sobbed, hiccupping.

"What's wrong?" Warren asked her.

He didn't dare blow up at her as he did with everyone else, but he was impatient to find out what could be so important that the girl remained protecting it in the middle of a slowly darkening cramped alley.

The girl shook her head wordlessly, hiccupping every time she attempted a start at a sentence. Warren gently pried her away from the object on the ground. When he saw what it was he froze.

"Oh God…"

The object was a person. That person was someone he knew, someone he was often annoyed with, someone who had just thrown French fries at his head earlier that day. The person was Alexis.

If it hadn't been for her oddly mismatched and hard to miss outfit, complete with purple and green striped arm warmer, he wouldn't have recognized her. There was a fresh bruise forming on her right temple, and several others decorating her arms and what he could see of her legs. Her head was tipped to the side, and there was blood dripping down from the back of her head. It had dried and was crusting in a thick puddle at the base of her neck and shoulders.

Warren fought the sudden queasiness that had taken hold of his stomach, and felt for a pulse….still there. The girl was still crying next to him and he looked at her.

"Are you her sister?" He asked. The girl nodded shakily. "I know her. She goes to my school. You can come to my house, ok? She'll get better."

The little girl shook more but nodded again nonetheless. Looking away briefly to clear his mind of the mental image of blood and bruises, he lifted Alex up off the ground and carried her across to the opposite alleyway with the small girl scampering after him.


	5. Chapter 5

As he stepped across the threshold of his house, Warren barely had time to carefully close the door behind him and the girl before his mom called out from the kitchen.

"Warren! Where have you been?" She said, rounding around the corner and appearing at the opposite end of the hallway.

She gasped as she noticed Alex.

"Oh…my god."

She gestured wildly for him to follow her and covered the couch with an old blanket.

"What happened to her?" She asked, wildly rushing to the kitchen and fumbling about for the first aid kit.

"I don't know," Warren answered her truthfully, "Found her along the short cut."

Returning to the couch with kit in hand, his mother shook his head at him.

"I don't want you taking that street anymore…who knows what might be there now that this…" She trailed off, dabbing at the dried blood on Alex's neck with a soaked rag.

Warren looked annoyed at his mother's words, but the look softened.

"We'll just keep her here for now, I'll clean her up, and---" The woman's stream of words stopped as she noticed the little girl standing cautiously next to the couch.

"Who are you?" She questioned the girl kindly.

"Ellie…she's my sister," Ellie answered. Her tears had slowed now to barely a trickle every few minutes, but she had remained stubbornly right next to Warren the entire way there, refusing to leave her sister.

Mrs. Peace looked up at Warren, who shrugged.

"Alex. One of Stronghold and Hippy-girl's friends. Goes to my school," He mumbled.

"Well then," Mrs. Peace said, looking back to Ellie, "You can stay here as well. We'll find out what happened when your sister wakes up. I'll unfold the other couch for you, you just stay here with Warren while I get it ready."

Ellie didn't say anything, but Mrs. Peace didn't seem to require an answer. She immediately set off for a hall closet. She returned within moments, her arms laden with sheets and blankets, and busied herself with preparing the other couch.

"We'll have to be sure to call the Strongholds and Layla later. I'm sure they'll want to know if anything happened to her. We don't have her phone number, so I suppose the rest of her family will just have to wait until later," Mrs. Peace rambled distractedly, still too busy with the pullout couch to take note of whether anyone was even paying attention to her.

"It's a good thing it's Friday. Now she'll have a full weekend to get all better, and for us to figure out what happened. I'm sure it was nothing…maybe just a dog attack or a bicycle accident. Do you know whether she owns a bicycle Warren? No, I guess you wouldn't…we'll just have to wait to find out."

Her son had admittedly not been giving her his undivided attention. In fact, the floor seemed to be the only thing on his mind. Warren was leaning against the kitchen counter that separated the kitchen area from the family room. His eyes were on the ground, and he said nothing to satisfy his mother's endless questions.

Alex was still lying on the couch, her head drooping off the side of a pillow. Her neck still showed an orange-red color on the back , despite Mrs. Peace's cleaning. In the light of the house Ellie could see her more clearly than in the dim alley. A few more tears slipped down her small impish face, but she stared at her sister's unconscious body without blinking, seemingly unaware of anything else.

"Sissy…"


	6. Chapter 6

Alexis had noticed two things when she opened her eyes. One was that there were bandages and empty containers of rubbing alcohol littering the ground below her, making the carpet look like a sea of medical garbage. Two was that she was most definitely not in her own house; strange that these realizations came to her in that exact order. She sat up slowly but didn't make a sound.

It was second nature for her to assume that she had been abducted by aliens, and the last thing she wanted to do was wake them from their supernatural slumber.

She was lying on a couch that was most definitely not hers, sitting in a room that she had never seen before, and had a bandage on her head that she was fairly sure was new. Avoiding the empty band-aid wrappers and…erm..._crayons_ on the floor? Giving the Crayola brand school supplies a suspicious glare Alex got up and walked toward what appeared to be the kitchen.

Although tempted to see if there was any candy on the premises, she continued past the kitchen into another hallway. Two of the three doors were open, and she heard voices coming from the first. Stealthily making her way toward it (and creaking with every step), she stood to the side and looked both ways before poking her head in.

It appeared to be a bedroom, as there was a bed, but other than that it was sparsely decorated. Much to Alex's surprise, Warren was sitting at the chair to a desk, bent over what looked like homework…and next to him stood the unmistakable form of Ellie.

Warren had also noticed two things when he opened his eyes for the day that morning. One was that Ellie was an exact replica of her sister, with the same light brown hair and blue eyes. Two was that not only did she look exactly like Alex, but she seemed to have inherited the same favorite hobby of annoying him every waking moment of his life.

"What's your homework about?" Ellie asked, ironically at about the same time Warren was mentally debating whether or not he would exchange one sister for the other.

"Can I see?" She asked again when he didn't answer.

Apparently none of her questions really required him to answer them though, as she carried out actions based on an imaginary situation in which he had chosen to give her preferred response. She climbed up on the bed next to the desk and peeked over his shoulder at the paper.

"Who's that?" She asked, pointing to a small illustration of a super-being accompanied by a paragraph.

"That's Radio-Man," Warren answered, glad to have a question he could answer easily.

"Wro-ong!" Alex sang from the doorway, suddenly unable to preserve her silence. "That's Sound-Syndrome, as distinguished by the sound wave-decorated cape as opposed to a radio transmitter on the wrist."

Warren started at the sound of another voice, and Ellie left the bed with a flying leap. Alex held open her arms for the little girl, who clung happily to her front like some variation of a four-legged spider.

"You're up," Warren observed bluntly, rolling his eyes but changing his label of the picture before she could see.

"Why yes I am, grand Capitano Obvious!" Alex gasped, apparently awestruck by his ingenious observation skills.

Ellie giggled and let go of her.

Upon righting herself to stand up to Alex's mid-thigh, she announced to her sister, "I'm hungry."

"What time is it?" Alex asked, directing her question at the now standing Warren and patting her sister's head instead of responding to her announcement.

"Lunchtime." He said simply, before stuffing his homework into a bag in the corner and pushing past her into the hallway.

Alex stared blankly at the corner behind which he had disappeared. She looked down at Ellie almost simultaneously to her sister looking up at her. For a moment there was nothing but silence as the sisters exchanged almost identical blank looks.

"Well that was rude," Alexis stated, before walking out the door after him, Ellie trailing behind her.


	7. Chapter 7

Warren's mother was glad to see Alex. Alex knew this because of the way she was embraced the moment she entered the kitchen.

"We _have_ to get you something to eat," Mrs. Peace said immediately.

With that, she steered Alex by the shoulders and pushed her down to a seat at the table with significant strength. Alex rubbed her shoulder wearily and looked up at Warren's looming form in the corner.

"_Super-Strength?_" she mouthed.

He shook his head and looked amused. He made to open the refrigerator door, but his mother slapped his hand away. He flinched under her glare.

"What do you think you're doing?" She scolded, "You will sit at the table while I make lunch."

Warren looked annoyed but sat down grumpily. Alex smiled oddly at him from across the table.

"What?" He asked when she went ten minutes without doing anything else but smiling at him.

She continued to stare at him with her unusual little smile on. Ellie had been in the bathroom, and ran into the room excitedly right then.

"Hey Sissy what's for--" She stopped mid-sentence when Alex showed zero facial response.

Odds were that any other little girl would have asked what was going on, or started laughing at the very least. Ellie, being related to Alex, looked in between the two staring contest participants for only a moment before fixing Warren with a blank staring smile nearly identical to her sister's.

"What?!" Warren exclaimed, now seeing the four-year-old joining in the madness.

The kitchen swung open and Mrs. Peace walked in.

"Don't yell, Warren," she reprimanded.

"Yeah Warren, use your indoor voice," Alex said, still smiling eerily.

"Yeah Warren, use your indoor voice," Ellie imitated.

Warren looked a little freaked out. It was completely surreal how alike they were. His mother continued scurrying around the kitchen preparing something, completely unaware of the silence that had befallen the table. After a while, Warren narrowed his eyes. Across from him, Alex and Ellie both narrowed their eyes as well. He moved right and their eyes followed him. He moved left and the same happened. There were several more moments of awkward silence.

"What--" he started.

"What--" Alex started.

"What--" Ellie started.

Mrs. Peace continued taking no notice.

"How?"

"How?"

"How?"

Warren got up. So did Alex and Ellie. Warren sat down again. So did Alex and Ellie. Warren ducked under the table. So did Alex and Ellie. Warren tapped his head while rubbing his stomach. So did Alex and Ellie. Warren rolled his tongue. So did Alex and Ellie. Warren winked.

"ARRGH!"

"HA!"

Alex glared at Warren from across the table, arms folded across her chest moodily. Ellie looked angry for a second too, but soon gave up and went to see what was for lunch.

"You can't wink?"

"Maybe," Alex answered shortly.

Warren's mom and Ellie both left the kitchen to get something. Alex twisted her mouth around a bit and examined the ceiling.

"So…what _is_ your mom's super-power?" She asked.

Warren shrugged.

"Same as mine."

Alex nodded.

"Uh-huh."

There was more awkward silence. Warren's mother and Ellie returned to the room.

"Warren," Mrs. Peace said, "I thought maybe we might have your friends over for dinner…you know, Will, Layla, and the others? It would be nice for them to see Alex; everyone's been so worried."

Warren didn't react to her at all. Alex thought it was rude for a moment that he wasn't answering his own mother, until Mrs. Peace just kept on speaking on her own.

"I thought maybe you could all go out back or something—we have such a nice yard, and you never seem to use it—maybe you could play football or have some kind of contest or something. We could invite Will's parents, too…"

She kept up a steady stream of spoken thoughts, clunking around pots and pans as she talked. No one could honestly say they were listening at this point.

"Just as long as it isn't a staring contest," Alex said evilly, "'Cause we all know who'd win that one."

She grinned smugly at Warren, who rolled his eyes but barely reacted otherwise.

"Guess it can't be a winking contest either," Warren started slowly, "because we all know who would win that one."

Alex's glare could've melted ice from across the table.


End file.
